[bethling]

I went to MIT, I can say that the only "real" advantage that I got from going there that I couldn't have gotten an a different school is that my Resume says I went to MIT - and that tends to get people to take a closer look at it if/when they might otherwise not.

I've found that for really good/talented people where they go doesn't matter as much as what they do and how deeply they explore the subjects. For me, the huge advantage to having been at MIT, is that all that hacking/discussion with peers was almost impossible to avoid. You almost can't help but work on cool, mind opening projects, and interact with people much smarter than you are.

But really - that opportunity is available no matter where you go to school. You might just have to work a little harder to find them. For the most part the best developers/hackers I've worked with didn't go to one of the "top top" schools - they worked super hard where ever they were and worked and learned outside of their normal curriculum, and in some cases that might even be better for them.

Career wise, I don't thing that having a degree from MIT has gotten me anything that I couldn't have gotten by having someone at a company say "you got to talk to her, she's really good." Just get to be good, do some cool things and you'll get noticed. If you worry that you're not getting exposed to the topics that you would at a place like MIT, you can always take a look at the books (or use OpenCourseWare) that they use to teach yourself a lot of the same things.